Ollie is 6 months

Ollie has really gotten to be a lot of fun lately. He just turned 6 months and has been so much fun! He loves to interact with his brothers and loves when Emitt gets close and bumps heads with him. He loves his jumper- even enough to sleep there....

he also loves the mirror.

He is starting to eat solids more (even though the first time I attempted he cried harder than I think he ever has) and is a big fan of applesauce and can pass on sweet potatoes.

He is already a thrill seeker and loves being tossed in the air, hung upside down, and jumps on anyones lap at any time. Feedings now take forever because he prefers to watch what is going on and play. He sleeps 11+ hours at night (hard to believe that with Emitt at this age he was still waking up every 45 minutes), which makes you think I should be well rested. Oh well.

He has the most engaging giggle. He is topping the charts at 16 1/2 lbs (25%), which always makes me laugh because everyone always thinks he is so chubby for his age! It is those adorable leg rolls. Love it. He can get up on his hands and knees and sits wonderfully. He chases toys around by rolling and scooting on his belly.

He loves watching almost anything on TV, has definite favorites on toys, and loves his mobile. We love having him in our home. His smile makes my day! We love you Ollie!

Real Salt Lake

Last weekend we went to the Real Salt Lake game. Besides the trauma of actually stepping foot in the home of the "UTAH UTES", tyse had a GREAT time and loved telling us all the fancy stuff they were doing- real technical stuff like dribbling and passing and headers. At least in his book. Anyway, thanks to the Buckleys for taking us along and here are some fun pics from the outing.

Notice the fun time Ollie was having. He loved the game. or something.

On the way out we checked out all the olympic stuff they have at Rice Eccles. We didn't make any of the olympic excitement, so we hadn't seen any of it before. It was fun and the kids loved it.

Tyse-isms

I love how kids come up with their little sayings (not that we are any different). Tyse has definitely learned the value of the spoken word and uses it to his full advantage and 90% of the time I love it! (10% of the time I end up somewhat horrified!) Now that I have you wondering, here are his latest phrases:

1. He loves to say "what's the difference?" he just hasn't yet gotten the idea of it. He says it to me often, sometimes out of the blue and I am supposed to know exactly to what he is referring and come up with the brilliantly correct answer. This is often when that horrific 10 percent makes a showing. He doesn't like that I don't read minds well. Anyway, the other day he says to me (good luck keeping up), "What's the difference with skin? The difference is that our skin looks like this (pointing) and other peoples skin is brown or really white. It's just different. That's the difference."

2. He has the most wonderful primary teacher. She does a great job and he learns a lot from her. In class they have been talking about President Monson and his counselors, whom he refers to as "president monson's presidents". Anyway, he asked me if I knew who president monson's presidents were one day and I actually understood and tried to explain that they are called counselors. He said, "Never mind mom with the right word. What matters is that we know who they are. I know. They are President Eyring and president Orkdoof." I love how he says that!

3. He has started soccer practice and loves every minute. He thinks he needs to practice non stop, and I had to hide his jersey and shin guards so they make it through the next week until his first game. One night he was out playing with Kent and Kent told him it was time to come in for bed. Tyse says, "But Dad, my coach saysbthat we need tom practice a lot! if I go to bed, I can't practice and then I won't win." Sheesh. But if I was concerned about him being a bit timid on the field, it was solved after the second practice when the coach said to me, "Man, Tyse has a lot of aggression!" I am hoping he meant that he is aggressive. I know you are all thinking, Tyse? Timid? no way. But it was a bit of a concern.... for a second or two. Anyway, That's all I can think of right now, but I know there was more to share, so I may have a part 2 later...

The Madsens and the Olympics

Our regular life has been overtaken by the olympics. OUr entire family is into it- except maybe Ollie. He will happily even watch the boring stuff.

Anyway, tyse is enthralled. it was only the second day of the olympics and he had already decided he wanted to work really hard to go to the olympics someday in swimming, volleyball, rowing, white water kayaking, and water polo. Then came his frustration... through tears he came up to me and said, "Mom, there are just too many choices." Yup. That produced tears.

To get a good idea of what it is like to watch sports with him, check out the following video of him watching Wimbledon last month....

Tyse's favorite events to watch have been as follows:

1. Water Polo. Except he called it water soccer for the first week or so. It was the only way I knew to explain it to him- and it would be one of the only events that I really don't have much of a clue about

2. Volleyball. He comes by it rightly and he loves to yell "pass, set, KABOOM!" at the TV. HE likes #8 on the mens indoor team- Purdy. He also likes Millar and Lambourne, of course, since they are ex-cougars. His only beef? That there are 3 different ways to score a volleyball game- the beach style (best of 3 to 21), the international indoor style (best of 5 to 25), and the college and high school style (best of 5 to 30). How is a 4 year old supposed to keep up

3. White Water Kayaking. He loved our little "rafting" trip down the St. Mary's in canada, so he figures he is a seasoned vet. He loves to watch and say "it's a green gate! Go through!" or "it's a red gate! Turn around ! Go backward! Come on!"

4. He loves the hoop and rope events from the rhythmic gymnastics. He loves how high they throw things and how they can catch it all tricky like. He also thought it VERY COOL that one of the girls rolled the hula hoop from one arm, around her head, and then down the other.

5. He loves the birds nest. DOesn't care what happens there- just thinks it looks cool and has a great name!

Emitt loves the volleyball and diving. He calls volleyball "boom" and is glued to it. He likes to climb into my lap and I try to explain what is happening and teach him the right terms and how to cheer appropriately. He is completely mesmorized!

His other favorite is diving. When the competitors get up onto the platform, he watches the tv and yells "oming...oming...oming" (coming) louder and louder until the dive begins, and then throws his head to the side and very smoothly says "aaaash" (splash) when they enter the water. It is really hillarious. I will try to get a video of it.

Kent and I are just sleep deprived. Here it is, 12:40 am, and i am up watching the bronze medal volleyball match between Cuba and China. THis has been going on for 2 weeks now! I can't wait to get a little sleep!

It has been so fun to watch. I can't wait for vancouver already!

Our future rock stars

Tyse is really into music. He cares who is on the radio, learns the words to almost anything, and knows who sings what with who and for what....

anyway, one of his favorites is Steve Miller Band. He has really been brushing up on his air guitar skills, and thanks to the seatbelt from his booster, he almost has it figured out. Notice that his left hand is busy playing the correct chords. Later this day, Emitt sang along to his first radio song- and it was Swingtown, by none other than SMB. His tastes have shifted lately, however to Jazz. He loves to listen to this cd called "The Great Ladies Sing Gershwin" with Ella Fitzgerald, etc. He is a bit quirky! Enjoy the show!

Ed Rothe Memorial Fund

I was lucky enough to grow up in the same town as my mom's brother and his family. I have a cousin the same age as I am from that family and we spent a lot of time together with sleepovers and family trips, etc. I love spending time with the Rothe family and love them dearly. My uncle, Ed, passed away in March in the second inning of a softball tournament he was playing in from a pulmonary embolism- basically similar to a heart attack. He played short stop for the Denver area Senior Softball League. Who knew there was such a thing?
Anyway, after his untimely and shocking death, his family, along with 2 pastors out of St. George, put together a memorial fund in his name to raise money to provide as many senior teams as possible with a defibrilator- hopefully to prevent this from happening to anyone else. By the first of July they had raised enough money to present a defibrilator to his team. The team just happened to be playing a tournament in Salt Lake that weekend and the sponsors wanted a family member to be there for the presentation. Ed's wife was not available for the weekend, so she asked my mom to go in her place. I went along too, mostly to take pictures and get out of the house.
It was a really neat thing to be a part of in his memory and it was nice to meet his teammates and hear how much they liked playing with and being around Ed. After his death, they laid his jersey and glove in his position (short stop) for the first inning of each game, during which no opposing team would hit there, and they also kept his name in the batting lineup and took an automatic out each time it would have been his turn to bat.
It is so nice to hear stories like this when it seems our world is turning more and more into a competitive dog-eat-dog kind of place. Even our recreation often gets out of hand and taken to the extreme. As if our family isn't competitive enough! I hope that I can help Tyse (and the other kids) learn that PEOPLE, respect and the love of the game are far more important than any tournament, trophy, or medal ever will be.

Colby's birthday

No, we don't have yet another boy at our house (yet!) Colby is a friend's little boy that turned 2 in July and I just haven't posted these fun pics yet. After the formal festivities, Shay's dad let us come to his house and play in the kiddie pool, the hot tub, and bbq. The kids have so much fun together! I feel so blessed to have friends that have kids the same ages as mine. Except poor Ollie. No one else was ready to take the plunge with the little ones only 9 months- I can't imagine why! I can't wait until we can move into our ideal compound style housing with those we love!

Look at how cute girls are. I don't have any of my own, so I just pretend maybe these are mine!

The slide into the pool was such a hit- the kids had a great time sliding down! Samantha was a little daredevil! For her usually cautious self, it was fun to see her almost as crazy as the ones that live at my house! Tyse thought that maybe Emitt needed a little help going down the slide. I'm sure!Scout was so cute in the pool- completely content just to be in her own little anti-slide world and go crazy! Here are the group of 2 year olds minus Amy. The birthday boy is in the middle.

My boys didn't want to stop!

They wouldn't get out even when Emitt was practically in convulsions! I wish we had video of him shaking and the sound effect that goes along with it. If he could put on some fat maybe he would be able to go swimming in July without worrying about hypothermia!
The bbq was delicious and Shay and Dave braved the swimming pool with all the kids. The end of the night was filled with fireworks from Lagoon. It was quite a show and kept going and going... thanks for the party, Shay, and the hospitality, Scott!